Those nice people at Amazon have sent me some reading matter - Conquest - the new book on the conquest and loss of English Normandy, from 1417 to 1453. The last blog-related book I read was Anne Curry's Agincourt which was an academic study, well researched and suggesting new insights into the armies, campaign and battle. I'm expecting Juliet Barker's approach to be much 'lighter', indeed the preface is ended with her stating "I hope that the reader will be entertained as well as informed". It looks like Barker's taken a straight narrative approach, using only secondary sources, but hopefully one that's anchored to the existing historical evidence. I've had a quick look at the section covering the battle of Verneuil, where she's taken the established view of the battle - sadly making no reference to Dr Michael Jones recent published reinterpretation. However the read should keep me sufficiently enthused for the next 6 weeks, to keep my project moving, although time spent reading is not time spent painting! I'll post a brief review of the book when read.
3 comments:
Simon,
I was having a gander at thisin Border Books. Not sure whether to buy or not. Have you had a chance to read any of it yet?
Cheers,
Darrell.
Hi Darrell,
Well, I'm only on page 60 (of 405 pages, exc bibliography, index, etc). It follows a narrative of events so far and there doesn't appear to be any sections tackling specific topics. All the book is based on published sources, so they'll be nothing new and I think Barker is 'filling a gap' with this book, not looking for new insight. So useful reference etc for £12 on Amazon. From military view, very little on battles, just the briefest content so far.
Reading about all the seiges has led me to think that there's a gap in study on Henry's artillery - assuming documents are extant?
Hope this helps?
Cheers.
Simon
I can't seem to get this in the States yet. Amazon USA hasn't even made it available as a pre-order.
Juliet Barker's book on Agincourt came out slightly after Curry's. The contrast was marked. Curry's book was a re-thinking of Agincourt and Barker's book, while good, was quite conventional. I think she's in the conventional biz.
Kevin
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